The American Santa Claus 

The character of Santa Claus has taken on many forms and many names throughout the centuries and at different times and in different cultures, the famous Christmas character would take on a multitude of different appearances and forms. Even the name has changed over time as the name Santa Claus itself derives from the mispronunciation of a Dutch variant on other common name Santa is most associated, St. Nicholas. So, how then did all these different variations become the modern day American image of Santa Claus, the bearded jolly old fat man in a red suit who bellows “Ho! Ho! Ho!”? Well, it was a process that slowly developed throughout the 19^th century starting with a poem in a newspaper. 

On December 23, 1823, the American tradition of Christmas would change forever. On this day, a newspaper published a Christmas time poem that, on the surface, seemed somewhat innocuous. Poems and short fiction were commonplace in newspapers in the 19^th century and there had already been a seemingly long tradition of fictitious works centering on Christmas themes. On this day, in the Troy, NY newspaper a poem entitled “A Visit from St. Nicholas” appeared. Now, this was not the introduction of St. Nicholas as the famous saint and his Christmas season gift giving exploits had been commonplace (in the traditional sense) for 1500 years. But, with this poem, the author who at the time was completely anonymous (there is some controversy as to who was the actual author with some sources listing Clement Clarke Moore and other listing Henry Livingston, Jr.) was probably the most realized and fleshed out presentation of the character. 

With the publication of this poem, St. Nicholas is first mentioned as being a chubby man who is accompanied by his eight reindeer who made their first ever appearance in popular culture as the reindeer had never been mentioned in any legends of St. Nicholas before. This not, however, the definitive development of the American Santa Claus as much as it was the beginning of what would eventually evolve into the modern day image of the American Santa Claus. For example, the common visual image of what Santa Claus looks like became immortalized in 1863 with the legendary illustration created by Thomas Nast for the cover of Harper’s Weekly. The image on this magazine cover solidified the beard, the hat and the coat that is most commonly associated with Santa Claus. However, this was not a color image so exactly what the clothing looked like would not be clearly defined until 1885. It was during this year that a color Christmas card appeared that featured Santa Claus in red clothing that has become his signature apparel for the last 122 years. 

As one can see, the end result of what has become the American Santa Claus was not something that occurred overnight, but evolved over a period of 60+ years in the 19^th century. So enduring, however, was this image that it has remains relatively unchanged for over one hundred years.